Got a pop up on very bottom right of computer saying :New updates are ready to download from JAVA update.Click here to review these items & begin downloading. I havent clicked yet because I dont know who JAVA are.Who are they ?

JAVA is a programme used extensively on the internet and is provided by a company called Sun. There shouldbe no problems allowing this software to update

JAVA is a programme used extensively on the internet and is provided by a company called Sun. There shouldbe no problems allowing this software to update


Thanks so much for your advice.

JAVA is a programme used extensively on the internet and is provided by a company called Sun. There shouldbe no problems allowing this software to update

It's a programming language, not a program. It was originally developed by Sun, and to a large extent is still guided by them, but has a far larger community involved in it's development now.

It's a semi-interpreted language, and as such requires a virtual machine (jvm) on your pc, this is what is wanting to update.

It's a programming language, not a program. It was originally developed by Sun, and to a large extent is still guided by them, but has a far larger community involved in it's development now.

It's a semi-interpreted language, and as such requires a virtual machine (jvm) on your pc, this is what is wanting to update.

Cyclone, Im not very up on these things.Can you tell me what a virtual machine is ?

you need Java installed to use the chatroom on here as well.

Not that there's much chat in there recently :)

Cyclone, Im not very up on these things.Can you tell me what a virtual machine is ?

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

But if you want the techy speak explanation

Virtual Machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine)

Java VM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_virtual_machine)

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

But if you want the techy speak explanation

Virtual Machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine)

Java VM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_virtual_machine)


Ive clicked on your links but its complicated for me to understand.Think I will just go ahead and install it in any case,if you think its alright to do so.

Definitely safe to do so.

Definitely safe to do so.


Thanks. :thumbsup:

In addition (and this is meant to help, not make your paranoid!)

For some reason, sometimes your Anti Virus Software might report Java as a virus, or as infected with a virus (which sometimes AVG will do. There used to be some security issues, but as Java is required for a lot of functionality, there isn't much you can do!). If this happens, all you have to do is:

Press Start, and open the control panel.

Open Java (which will have a funky coffee cup logo), and at the bottom of the dialogue box that then loads, click the button to delete temporary files. This will then clear anything that might have caused a problem.

Rebooting the system would be good after doing this.

As I said, there *used* to be some security issues, but I haven't had any problems for the past year or so, so there's no need to worry unduly! If anything does happen this will fix it.

To be honest, if you have a decent antivirus/firewall then it's quite hard to pick up nasties as you go about your business on the net. Unless you spend a lot of time on.... questionable sites then you should really be as safe as houses! Usually when something pops up on your taskbar it's genuine and you can trust it.

I remember when things used to crash on win95/98 and a box would come up saying "this program has performed an illegal operation".

That caught quite a few people out thinking the old bill would be knocking down their door any minute!

as rubes said.......the chatroom is java

and its **** :P